


A Big Moment in Small Hours

by elfriniol



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Dave is a lovestruck idiot, Fluff, Late Night Snack - Freeform, M/M, Otasune, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfriniol/pseuds/elfriniol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never has being so different from each other been so comforting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Big Moment in Small Hours

**Author's Note:**

> _"Always take a big bite_   
>  _it's such a gorgeous sight_   
>  _to see you eat in the middle of the night"_
> 
> -The Cure (Friday I'm In Love)

Dave was a light sleeper - a skill everyone training under Big Boss acquired. The man would sneak into their dorms and would punish those who wouldn't snap awake at the slightest disturbance, like a careless tap of foot or draft from open window. Thanks to this, Dave was always alert, even in his dreams.

After founding Philanthropy, he had a different kind of exercise - how to distinguish noise caused by Hal's late night activities from possible presence of an intruder. It took him months to get used to the rapid tap of keyboard or a cup of coffee placed on wooden surface with a bit more force than necessary. Or to the deep hum of boiling water in the kettle. Or to an occasional flushing of toilet. However, gradually his brain divided sounds into "nerd sounds", of which he was aware, but labelled them as harmless, and "strange sounds", reserved for real disturbance and imminent danger.

Sometimes the "nerd sounds" were easy to ignore, sometimes less so. Tonight fell into the second category; the flat they were staying at was a single room, kitchen counter, table, and creaking bed cramped in space of 17 square meters. Even though Hal tried to be as quiet as he could, going as far as to have earphones connected to his laptop, Dave would still once in a while resurface from his reverie. At the small "slap-slap" of bare feet. At the whispered, barely suppresed laugh. At the scratching of cardboard against cardboard.

The last sound makes Dave open his eyes. It's not a typical "nerd sound". In a sleepy haze, he raises his head, looks sideways at the dimly lit kitchen-part of the room.

Hal's sitting at the table, gaze fixed on laptop screen, the only source of light besides a street lamp behind the narrow window, cloaking everything in bluish veil. There's a pizza box drawn just next to the computer and Hal's chewing on the leftovers from dinner. Dave watches as he takes a big bite, how the cheese stretches and tears apart and vanishes past Hal's moist lips, that tips of Hal's fingers are shiny with grease and in one place red with a ketchup stain, how he eats away the juicy part of the triangle until only the crust remains and, after testing it with his teeth, Hal discards it, only to take another piece. On his face flicker different colors according to how the scenes in the show he's watching change, some of them casting strange glow onto his specs; there are darker smudges under his eyes, a treat that seldom disappears from Hal's face, but there's no apparent tiredness in his stare. He looks genuinely happy, feasting on a cold pizza in the middle of the night while indulging in his favorite hobby.

Hal finishes a third piece, licks his fingers, and is nodding his head to the rhythm of the ending or opening theme or whatever music is streaming into his earphones right now. Dave lets his head sink back onto the soft pillow.

He falls asleep with the stupidest of smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to drop by [my tumblr](http://mini-mantis.tumblr.com/) :)


End file.
